Seasons
by Winter's Melancholy
Summary: A love story, written to complement the four seasons of the year. AU. Complete.
1. Summer

An AU fic.

AoGA House Cup. (Words: 1,142.)

Seasons:

_Sometimes, when seasons change, they bring with them more than just a change in temperature, or a different colour palette._

**Summer**:

Mikan absolutely adored summer. She loved the beach parties, the lazy days spent doing nothing at all, and the night festivals. Everything about the season appealed to her. The mere name of the season gave her joy, and she embraced the warmth it brought with every part of her being. In the eighteen years of her life, she found that happy things always happened to her in the summer. From the smallest of things, like finding a penny in a bush while playing in a park as a child, to receiving her very first pet, a puppy, at the age of six, she always found that the season was something to look forward to every year.

It didn't help that her birthday fell during the season, either.

However, it was the summer when she turned eighteen that provided her with an experience that she'd never forget- one of utter bliss, yet of utter sorrow as well.

It was the year of her graduation from high school, and it also marked the end of her bliss as a sheltered child. Her relatively small circle of friends dwindled, as one by one they disappeared overseas, either to school, or to go off on some holiday to celebrate graduation. Being relatively poor herself, though, she never had such an opportunity, and continued to live in her small, quiet hometown. She realised that in the long break before her first classes in the fall, she had little to do other than brood at home by herself, relatively alone, whiling the afternoons away by either reading or sleeping.

It was on one of those quiet, lazy afternoons that she met Natsume. Bored, Mikan decided to have a drink at a café down the street from her house. She was hoping to catch a glance of Anna, a friend working there, and she desperately wanted something to do other than laze around waiting for an e-mail from her best friend, Hotaru.

Walking into the café, she looked around, and saw that it was mostly vacant, aside from the few elderly patrons having tea. Nothing caught her attention, however, more than the brooding figure in the corner of the café. A boy, clearly around the age of nineteen or twenty, had taken her usual spot in the establishment. His face was buried in a manga book, and a steaming mug of espresso was on the table, beside about three or four empty cups. He looked strangely familiar to Mikan, and something about him drew her to walk towards him.

Curious, she decided to strike up a conversation. Sitting herself down at the table, she smiled, and greeted him cheerfully, only to get rebuffed with a grunt. Natsume was hardly the most hospitable person, however, and he decided he was not about to change that facet of his personality just because of a random girl sitting in front of him.

He, however, softened a little when he saw the sullen expression on the girl's face. It seemed that he recognised her from somewhere, and he raised the question to her.

"Hmm. Do I know you, little girl?" He inquired, his voice soft but harsh all the same.

It turned out that the two were apparently acquainted, having been classmates in both Biology and History during their years in high school. Not having much in common, the two launched into an awkward silence, just staring at each other (mostly Mikan trying to get Natsume's attention). Eventually, however, they started a random conversation, revolving around why they were stuck in town while everyone else had left or were busy.

Both were apparently slated to go to college in the fall. However, Natsume said he had his own personal reasons for staying, something that left Mikan curious. However, she did not dare to inquire more, given Natsume's abrasive personality.

Her unconditional requests (and persistence) for his friendship well into the late afternoon eventually started to warm Natsume up, and he decided to ask her to meet him the next day at the café again, as he admitted that he would have been bored as well, stuck at home.

And so, time passed. They went from daily conversations at the café, to trips to the library to discuss anything from Shakespeare to the next big thing in the music industry, and finally even to quiet little walks in the park. The two grew closer. It was the classic summer romance, tinged with the beautiful colours of the season and the innocence of first love. The silence that was once pervaded by awkwardness slowly settled into a comfortable one, both growing to enjoy the other's company. They began to spend their evenings together, going out for leisurely dinners, enjoying the peaceful nights at a small diner near the edge of town.

It was on one of these nights that Mikan's life was changed forever, for better or worse.

They had arranged to meet at a summer festival on the day of her birthday sometime in July. Mikan, in her brightly coloured yukata, her clothing and bag embroidered with cherry blossom petals, looked absolutely perfect, standing at the entrance to the festival.

He had decided to dress casually, in a simple tee shirt and drainpipe jeans. They looked like a suitably matching pair, even as they strolled through the festival grounds, playing classic carnival games, and simply losing themselves in the moment.

Then, it was time for the fireworks. He took her by the hand, brought her to the top of the hill, and watched her as she danced in the moonlight. He then decided to give her a gift she would never forget.

Under the stars, in the middle of the July heat, he kissed her.

From there, everything else just seemed to fall in place for Mikan. They began to go out, even more so than before. From the beach, to the park, they always seemed to find something new to do.

That was how their summer progressed. Warm hugs, passionate kisses, romantic escapades under the moon.

Their lover's affair, however, would be short lived.

It was on a day, not long before both were to go for college. Natsume simply called her and told her that it was all over; claiming their summer love was nothing more than a simple fling. He completely disappeared from her life the day after, not a trace to be found.

He left Mikan behind, heartbroken and completely clueless, yet pining for him all the same.

He claimed that his feelings changed like the seasons, but yet somehow she knew that there was something more to it than just that. She told herself to wait, lonely and melancholic as she was.

And so, that was how summer passed.


	2. Autumn

AoGA HC- (Words: 575.)

**Autumn:**

Autumn had never felt this cold to Mikan before. She lay on the floor, quiet and melancholic all at the same time. It had been nearly three days since the last time her phone rang, and it currently lay on the couch, its quiet and inactive state mimicking its owner.

She moped quietly to herself, and looked out the window.

Three months. That had been how long it had been since she had last seen her summer romance, Natsume Hyuuga. To her, his departure had killed the world around him. As the seasons changed around her, she could only mope around, as autumn came quietly. The change in season from summer to autumn only brought Mikan more sorrow, as the daily reminders of him grew stronger. The similarly changing colors of the leaves reminded her of his final words to her.

_"Feelings change, Mikan. They're exactly like the leaves on the trees in autumn. When they change, they simply do."_

With those simple words, he had shattered her heart utterly. The feeling of losing her first and only love took a massive toll on her, even as she moved into a dormitory in the campus near the university that she was studying at near the beginning of the academic season that year.

His voice. His smile. The places they had been to. The moments they had shared. As she strolled around the town she had spent her short romance with him in, the memories surged through her mind repeatedly, as if assaulting her.

The biting winds of the season did not help either, as they seemed simply seemed to amplify her misery. Frigid, and devoid of any warmth, it mirrored the broken state of her heart.

The once bright, spirited girl that had greeted summer with the intensity and joy of a child had grown to loathe the season. She had become withdrawn, and spent entire days brooding in her apartment whenever she had no lessons.

Even her best friend, Hotaru, could do little to help her. As a student studying the Capital, Hotaru was far away from Mikan, and could only send the occasional e-mail and call to ensure that she was fine. Essentially, they had had little to no contact ever since the breakup.

It was rather saddening, as well, that one of the hardest periods in Mikan's life had to coincide with one of Hotaru's busiest.

Her inability to help Mikan left her distressed, but she could do little about it, held down by projects and plenty of work.

As such, Mikan was left mostly to herself.

Even as she lay on the floor, images of the past flashed through her mind.

The feel of his ring on her hand. She could have sworn she saw his silhouette in the sand whenever she passed by the beach as well.

Three months, and she had barely grasped the idea of getting over him.

She had been unable to get over her daily habit, either.

When the sun set every day, she would walk up to the hill where the two would normally watch the sunset together back in the summer.

It had become somewhat of a routine to her. A ritual.

It was very clear that the memory of Natsume would last far into the winter, even going beyond that.

It would take more than the changing of seasons and a swap in color palette in order to repair Mikan's broken heart.


	3. Winter

******AoGA House Cup. **(Words: 591.)

**Winter: **

Two years.

She had spent two long, agonizing years trying to get over him.

The first winter had been painful. She had spent her days in the cold, frigid wind trying to rid her mind of every last thought of him. Sitting at the empty table and watching the remaining leaves fall of the bare trees, she had let her mind wander, even though she knew that it would never fail to return to the memory of her lost love.

Every single thing in the season of white reminded her of him. Even the bland smell of the air, and the powdery snow that fell from the sky.

Somehow, even though she had fallen for him in the summer, traces of him were still present in the winter.

The first winter, she managed little more than moping around and feeling sad about herself. She had spent Christmas that year back at her parents' place, crying at the empty seat beside her, and the gift she had so desired to receive for Christmas when she had still been dating him.

The world felt strangely empty, though the ache by then had dulled. She simply went back to her normal life, the dull throbbing ever present, the feeling of hollowness and emptiness simply suppressed.

Deep down in her heart, even though she was trying to tell herself to let go, Mikan knew that she could not, and would not. She had been way too stubborn for her own good.

Letting go would take more than just verbal convincing and sheer willpower. She knew that her heart had to be willing, and that she was hardly willing to do so.

And so, the snow and cold battered her that first winter.

As time passed, however, she slowly began to realize that Natsume would likely not come back.

The second winter marked the beginning of a change in Mikan, catalyzed by her realization of betrayal way too late.

It had taken her nearly two years, but she realized that moping over her broken heart would not help her in any way. Slowly, she began to erase the traces of him from her mind.

Natsume. His breathing on the nape of her neck. His kiss. His warm and strong embrace.

The things that had meant so much to her in the summer of her eighteenth birthday were starting to fade, slowly but surely.

She knew it was for the best, and so, she simply let them go.

The pain she felt, she knew she would remember for years to come, but the epiphany she had gotten the second winter woke her up from her trance of self-pity. She had come to the realization that crying over the very man that had left her would not serve to bring him back.

The idea of finally forgetting him had finally begun to appeal to her, like a strange and foreign beacon of hope.

And so, unlike the uneasiness and unwillingness of the first winter, she decided to truly let go, trying to forget him for the first time.

In lasting memory of her first love, though, she placed a final bouquet of white roses at their 'special' place, the road at the top of the hill.

It stood as a final, symbolic reminder of her finally being able to move on from the heartbreak from her first love.

It stood as a simple, yet profoundly deep step in her quest for closure.

"_Much like how feelings change with the seasons,_

_one can get over loss with time."_


	4. Spring

**AoGA House Cup: **(Words: 515.)

**Spring: **

The falling cherry blossom petals indicated the advent beautiful season of spring for Mikan. The beautiful shower of pink had always been one of the greatest highlights of the New Year, and it seemed even more beautiful to her this particular year. Her surname, Sakura, was representative of the season, and in her twentieth year, the spring had particular significance to her.

Spring, of course, had always been best known as the season of new beginnings.

Mikan would realize this in a rather profound manner, as her finally being able to accept the loss and disappearance of her first love left her a changed, albeit similar, person.

As the seasons passed, so she would mature as well.

After the passing of two winters, she finally came to realize that pining over Natsume had long become futile, and she told herself to look forward to the spring, which she did.

Regaining her cheerful demeanor, she became the same ball of optimism and joy that embodied her original personality.

It was as if the season of regeneration, spring, had rejuvenated her as well.

The burden of Natsume having long parted from her, Mikan now felt more free to chase her own happiness, instead of waiting after someone who would likely have never come back for her.

Natsume, as it turned out, had simply been a player looking for the fun and thrill of a summer romance. He had possessed no long-term feelings, instead taking her for a fool and toying with her in that short but intense period.

Unbeknownst to him, the sentimental and highly sensitive Mikan had thought otherwise, and when he abandoned her as such for his studies abroad, she had been left more broken that he thought she would have been.

That was, however, in the past, and Mikan had decided to put those very same events behind her and move on.

Much like how the season represented new beginnings, Mikan felt that she had been born anew, and finally free to chase a new love again.

The season signified the ending of any semblance of feelings towards her first love, and Mikan slowly began to open up her heart to the possibility of love again.

Looking back at the past, Mikan laughed at her foolishness, but yet again knew that it would have been an experience she would not have traded for the world.

Valuable in that she was no longer infatuated with the concept of 'puppy love', she came to realize that love was more than just that.

While still unfamiliar with the concepts of true love, she had begun to realize that it was much more complex than just simple feelings of attraction.

As she stood at the hill for the final time, she looked to the sky, and silently thanked Natsume.

Having realized been made to her naivety, she had to thank him for indirectly preventing her from entering a potentially destructive relationship, and so, she held no hard feelings against him for playing her.

As the cherry blossom petals fell all around her, she could do nothing more but smile and look to the future, glad that she had finally gotten over Natsume and, at the same time, ready to accept new love.


End file.
